The Arrancar
by EWhiteOwl18
Summary: An Arrancar has appeared in Karakura Town! Who is this Arrancar? When the time comes, will the Soul Reapers be able to kill it? Rated T because I'm paranoid. :)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, peoples! This is my first Bleach fanfic. I'm sorry if it's really terrible. This started out as a good idea but I get the feeling that it's not gonna be as good as the idea itself was. So sorry in advance. :) Well, I guess I better get started. I don't own Bleach! But wouldn't that be great? To be able to say that you made Bleach? XP**

**The Arrancar**

**Chapter 1**

"All captains and their assistants, report to First Company's barracks! All captains and their assistants, report to First Company's barracks!"

Renji Abarai, Assistant Captain of the Sixth Company, stared at the Hell Butterfly in disbelief. "First Company's...?" he questioned to no one in particular. "What could be that important?" Despite his confusion, he hurried to the designated barracks. The rest of the captains and their assistants were already there when he arrived.

"Now that Abarai's here, we'll get started," Head-Captain Yamamoto said. "Research and Development has reported to me that there is a problem in the human world." He paused, looking everyone in the eyes. "They've detected a strange spiritual pressure there. It's the spiritual pressure of an Arrancar—no, not an Arrancar. The spiritual pressure of an Espada."

The Captains and Assistant Captains exploded into chaos except for Captain Kurotsuchi, Captain Hitsugaya, and Captain Kuchiki. Head-Captain Yamamoto slammed his Zanpakuto on the floor and yelled, "Silence!" Everyone was quiet. "I'm sending two Captains and Assistant Captains to the human world. Captain Kuchiki, Captain Hitsugaya, Assistant Captain Abarai, and Assistant Captain Matsumoto, I've chosen you to help. Now go! We can't let this Espada run rampant any longer than it already has!"

The four officers ran out of the barracks and hurried into the Senkaimon to arrive in the human world seconds later. It didn't take them long at all to detect the spiritual pressure that they were warned about. The Hollow obviously wasn't trying to hide its reiatsu.

Renji sucked in a huge breath. He could barely breathe. He hadn't felt so weak in years. "This spiritual pressure..." he gasped. "It's so strong! What the hell is this thing?"

The Captains were obviously just as surprised but they weren't quite as affected as Renji. "It doesn't matter," Captain Hitsugaya said. "We just have to kill it."

"Renji," Captain Kuchiki said. "If you're having trouble breathing, imagine how the humans must be feeling."

Renji ground his jaw and replied, "Of course, Captain."

Matsumoto exclaimed, "Come on, let's go!" The four officers darted to the origin of the immense reiatsu.

They found it in the middle of Karakura Town's park.

Before they could see what the creature looked like, Kisuke Urahara was thrown back by an unseen force. But something was wrong. He wasn't wearing his usual clogs, hat, and casual clothes. He was wearing a black kimono and a Haori. He was in full-out Shinigami mode for the first time in years. He was clearly beat up with scratches all over and an obvious limp. Blood was running down his left arm. He wore a look of determination and was that anger?

"Urahara!" Renji shouted.

The banished Captain glanced back at the Soul Reapers before saying bitterly, "About time you got here." Without saying anything else, he charged back toward the Arrancar. This time, the Shinigami followed.

And then, they saw it. The Arrancar with the spiritual pressure of an Espada. But it wasn't just any Arrancar.

It was _him._

Ichigo Kurosaki.

Deputy Soul Reaper.

Visored.

_Arrancar._

He was standing before them in his Bankai with a hollow mask covering a fourth of his face. His eyes were black with yellow irises. A bloodthirsty and insane smile was on his face.

Captain Kuchiki was in shock, though he didn't show it on his face. He'd seen Ichigo the first time he'd Hollowfied. He'd been the very first to see. It had been frightening then. But this was different. Then, he'd simply had a twisted spiritual pressure, but if one looked closely, it was still human.

This spiritual pressure wasn't human. It was one hundred percent Hollow. One hundred percent Espada.

Urahara was crossing blades with Ichigo. It was amazing that he could've held on for this long. Ichigo had been strong before. But now? He was practically unstoppable.

Ichigo grabbed Urahara's Benihime with his bare hand. "You gotta do better than that if you wanna beat me!" Ichigo laughed, but his voice was nearly unrecognizable.

Urahara's eyes widened. "Scream, Benihime!" Urahara knew the attack would do no damage to Ichigo; however, he also knew that if he did nothing Ichigo would snap Benihime. She was not an easily broken sword, but at Ichigo's level, it would've been simple.

Ichigo released the Benihime and Urahara jumped back. Hitsugaya yelled at Urahara, "You fool! Use your Bankai!"

Urahara briefly glanced at Hitsugaya and replied, "No."

"Why?" Rangiku screamed back.

Before Urahara had a chance to answer, Renji said, "Because of what his Bankai is." Urahara said nothing. "That's it, isn't it? You wanted me to train with Chad because your Bankai wasn't 'good for training', and that's why you're holding back right now! You don't want to kill him! Well guess what? This isn't training, and that's not Ichigo! Feel its spiritual pressure!"

"I know that!" Renji winced. "I know. But do you think this is easy? To have to kill someone I trained so hard so that he could live?"

"If you can't do it, then get out of the way." Kuchiki pulled out his sword. "Bankai." He released his sword and was soon surrounded by thousands of little pink blades that so resembled cherry blossom petals.

"No," Urahara said. "I won't step aside." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Well, Benihime, it's been a while, hasn't it?" He opened his eyes and there was a sharpness in them as he stared at Ichigo. "Ban—"

Ichigo flash stepped—no, he used sonido and disappeared from sight. No one saw him coming. The Captains only saw him when he was right in front of Urahara.

Ichigo flicked Urahara on the chest—he _flicked _him—and Urahara was sent flying, straight toward the trees faster than he could've flash-stepped. When he hit the ground, an explosion of dirt flew up a hundred feet into the air. He didn't come back up.

"Sorry, Kisuke," Ichigo called down. He obviously wasn't sorry. Ichigo glanced at the new arrivals. "Hey, didn't I already beat you, Byakuya? You too, Renji. Well, no. Ichigo beat Renji. Do you really wanna fight me? Ichigo's so _weak._ I'm a lot stronger than him."

Byakuya sent all of his tiny blades flying towards Ichigo. "No you aren't. You're a Hollow. Whether you're in Ichigo Kurosaki's body or not makes no difference. And I won't lose to a Hollow."

Suddenly, Captain Kuchiki's blades dispersed as if pushed away. Ichigo stood there, completely unharmed. "I'm not like Ichigo, Byakuya," he said. "I'm not gonna be killed by a bunch of tiny flowers." As soon as he said that, all of the blades shattered until they were practically dust. "Those things aren't gonna break through my hierro."

Captain Kuchiki's eyes widened. The real Ichigo had been able to deflect all of his blades—that was impressive in and of itself. But to shatter every single one so thoroughly?

Ichigo frowned. "None of you guys are any fun. I'm not gonna waste any more time on people like you." He lifted Zangetsu—the real Ichigo's sword—and said, "Getsuga Tenshou."

A red and black ray of light—if it could even be called light—flew towards the four Soul Reapers.

Simultaneously, Captain Hitsugaya and Renji screamed, "Bankai!" Renji yelled, "Hikotsu Taiho!" and shot a beam of spiritual energy at the approaching Getsuga. Hitsugaya made a sphere of ice around the four in an attempt to protect them.

The Getsuga dissipated against Renji's attack but Hitsugaya upheld his defense. "That was too easy," he mumbled.

As soon as the words escaped his mouth, the ice shattered and Ichigo with his quarter mask appeared directly in front of Hitsugaya's face. The monster grabbed the Captain's kimono and placed a finger against his chest. A red light started to glow at his fingertips.

"Captain!" Rangiku shouted. Hitsugaya forced himself to freeze Ichigo's hands to the point where they were covered up to the shoulder in ice. Not even moving, Ichigo destroyed the ice. _No way... _Hitsugaya thought. _Did he do that using just his spiritual pressure?!_

He had no time to think anything else. Right after that thought crossed his mind, Ichigo released a Cero right through his chest.

Hitsugaya coughed up blood. An enormous hole was blown in his stomach, just barely scraping his lungs. Ichigo threw him to the ground. "Next!" he called casually. Right after the words left his lips, Hihio Zabimaru attacked him from behind.

Ichigo reached out and stopped the snake with his bare hand.

"Hikotsu Tai—" Ichigo swung Zangetsu up and destroyed Renji's sword without so much as flinching. He wasn't even breaking a sweat. While Renji stood in the air, shocked, Ichigo flew towards him and cut him down the middle. If his reflexes hadn't been so quick, he would've been sliced in half.

Ash attacked Ichigo from all sides. When he didn't swipe it all away, Rangiku smiled. He couldn't destroy her attack like he'd done with the others'. It was ash; if it got knocked away, it would just come right back again.

"You think you're clever, huh?"

A chilling voice spoke into her ear. "Hate to break it to you, but your dust isn't even close to sharp enough if you want to break through my hierro. If Byakuya's flowers couldn't, your ash can't."

Ichigo kicked Rangiku in the middle of her back and she was sent flying to the earth in much the same way Urahara did.

Byakuya flash-stepped directly in front of Ichigo, placed his index finger against Ichigo's chest, and said, "Hado Four: Byakurai."

A bolt of white-blue light exploded from Byakuya's fingertip and shot through Ichigo's right lung.

For a split second, Ichigo couldn't breathe. He was choking on his own blood. But that only lasted for a second. The hole in his chest healed as well as his lung and he promptly slashed Byakuya's chest. Ichigo decided that the captain was falling too slowly and kicked him down to the earth.

Ichigo laughed insanely. "Woah! The Soul Society's standards have really dropped! That wasn't any fun at all. Oh well. Maybe I'll find some better opponents if I go to the Soul Society itself...?"

Suddenly, Ichigo heard a crunch of dry leaves and he turned to face the sound. Another crazed smile crept onto his face.

"Well, well, well, would you look who it is?"

**Who is it that Hollow Ichigo sees? And why is it that Ichigo was taken over by his Hollow side? So many questions! (Layla: Which you know all the answers to, so stop acting all surprised. Me: 8l)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! So... Uh... Chapter two. :)**

**The Arrancar**

**Chapter 2**

"Well, well, well, would you look who it is?" There were four people standing on the ground. A busty red-head girl with star shaped barrettes in her hair. An unbelievably tall guy with wavy brown hair that covered his eyes. Another guy in all white with blue hair and glasses. A Soul Reaper girl with black hair and her small hand on her sheathed sword's hilt. "You're Ichigo's friends, right? What were your names again? Was it Orihime, Chad, Uryu, and Rukia?"

Orihime was paler than a ghost, but it wasn't because of Ichigo's unbelievable spiritual pressure. Sure, that was having an effect on her—it was having an effect on every one of them. But she wasn't shaking because of that.

That mask. _That mask. _It was so very similar to her brother's when he'd become a Hollow. But this... This was so much worse. Her brother, at least, had only had the same hair when he'd changed. Everything else was different. But right now... Ichigo looked exactly the same. The only difference was the quarter mask on the upper left side of his face and his eyes. The brown eyes she loved so much... Now yellow and the deepest, darkest black... _Ichigo... What happened?_

Ichigo disappeared from view for a total of one millisecond before reappearing right in front of Orihime, his face less than an inch away from hers. _Oh, God,_ the girl thought. _He even _smells _the same._

An insane voice interrupted her thoughts and she was suddenly staring into a pair of yellow and black eyes. Her own grayish-lilac ones widened. Her heart all but stopped. "You're terrified of me, aren't you?"

_"This terrifies you, doesn't it?"_

_"Tell me, girl. How terrified are you?"_

Two questions that were oh-so-similar but came from two totally different mouths. And now the man in front of her was asking almost the exact same. _No, _Orihime scolded herself. _This isn't Ichigo. This isn't a man. This is a monster. _But how could she believe that when they look so similar?

"Yes, you're scared. Frightened. How could Ichigo—your dear, sweet, strong Ichigo—be an Arrancar? That's because Ichigo is _weak!_ Without Zangetsu and I, he's just a normal human. So he draws on our power. And the more he did that, the easier it was to take over."

An arrow that glowed blue shot towards Ichigo's head. Without even looking, the Arrancar grabbed the arrow. He turned and stared at Uryu, smiling. "If you think those things will kill me... I might have to take one of your precious Quincy arrows and throw it right back at you." His smile grew. "But I'll kill you either way."

Suddenly, Chad slammed his fist into Ichigo's side—his transformed left fist. "El Muerte."

Ichigo didn't even move. In fact, he _laughed. _"That tickled." He turned to Chad. _"My turn." _He clenched his left hand into a fist and punched Chad in the same place he'd punched Ichigo. Chad coughed up blood and was thrown into the air, hitting his back against a tree fifty yards away.

_"Chad!" _Rukia, Uryu, and Orihime screamed. Ichigo clenched and unclenched his left fist as if testing out its mobility.

"I'm right-handed, so that wasn't quite my best," Ichigo said flippantly. "Sorry I couldn't give you my best like you did with me."

"Chad!" Orihime screamed again. Two sections of her star-shaped barrettes flew over towards Chad and began trying to heal him.

"Orihime, Rukia, step back." Uryu gripped his shining blue bow.

"Uryu. We won't—"

"Rukia, be quiet!" Rukia flinched at the sharpness in his voice. "I don't want either one of you in the vicinity when I launch this attack."

Neither Rukia nor Orihime moved for a moment. Rukia then said, "Orihime, come on." Orihime didn't follow Rukia. Instead she ran toward Chad's unconscious form. Rukia nearly had a screaming fit, but Ichigo let the girl run. His eyes were all on Uryu.

"So, whaddya got for me, Quincy?"

Uryu's face turned grim and he pulled out one of his Seele Schneider. It automatically sprouted a blue blade. Within a second, the weapon was flying toward Ichigo. He swatted it away. The strategy was repeated three more times.

Then Uryu shoved his last Seele Schneider in the ground at his feet. He pulled out a small tube no bigger than his pinky finger. "Apparently you're no smarter than Ichigo was. Goodbye, Hollow."

The condensed reishi hit the hilt of the Seele Schneider and a column of blue light shot up from the pentagram the Quincy had created without the Arrancar noticing.

A shrill cry of pain echoed through the air as the light hit Ichigo. Rukia, Uryu, and Orihime all winced. Chad was still unconscious.

Ichigo was bending back slightly and shrieking from the pain. He threw his hands on his face as if to block it from the attack. At that, Uryu turned away from the Arrancar. Even though he knew that this was an Arrancar and not his Soul Reaper friend, couldn't stand to watch him get disintegrated from his attack.

"Just kidding."

Uryu's eyes widened and he turned to face Ichigo. He moved so fast; Uryu only had time to see the yellow and black eyes and the red striped quarter mask before Ichigo stabbed him is the stomach with his sword. Blood flew out of Uryu's mouth in the form of a cough.

"I was about to use my hand, but then I remembered when Ichigo got killed that way by Ulquiorra and decided I'd let you die with _some _dignity. Did you really think I didn't know about that attack? You believed you set me up with that, but in reality, I set _you _up. If I didn't want to have any fun, I would've just snapped them in half."

Ichigo pulled his sword out of Uryu who in turn screamed in pain. Ichigo let his sword lay on his shoulder in that gesture that the real Ichigo had done so very much. "I don't know why Ichigo hung out with you weaklings. But hey, he was a weakling himself."

A flurry of ice and snow flew at Ichigo from his right. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren."

Ichigo's face and mask could be seen in the ice, twisted in shock. Rukia sighed. She never thought that one day, she would be killing the man she cared about so deeply. She knew about Ichigo's inner Hollow, but not once had she imagines _this _would happen. Rukia turned her back on the ice that held her old friend and began dragging Uryu to Orihime.

_Crack! Crack! Shatter!_

Rukia whirled back around to face Ichigo and pulled out her sword, already in Shikai.

"Ooh, chilly," Ichigo said smugly. "Let's see if this works." He forced out a large amount of spiritual pressure, purposely focusing most of it on Rukia. Her eyes widened and her knees trembled. "Huh," Ichigo commented. "You must be pretty strong for a Soul Reaper who's not an officer." Sweat poured down Rukia's face. "Your soul should be crushed from this much reiatsu. But you are a soul, aren't you? So I guess _you _should be crushed." He chuckled crazily.

Ichigo stopped the onslaught of spiritual pressure. Rukia was breathing heavily and her knees were shaking but she still held her sword and showed no sign of dropping it. Ichigo frowned for a moment but a second later it was replaced with an insane smile. "You wanna help me practice a new attack? I'm borrowing it from someone else. Let's see if you recognize it."

Ichigo disappeared from Rukia's vision and she couldn't even sense his spiritual pressure. It was as if he'd never existed.

But then he came into view again.l

Right next to Rukia, sword at his side.

Rukia tried to turn to him at full speed, but she knew it was too slow. _This is Brother's...!_

Ichigo smiled and cut Rukia from her shoulder to her hip.

Rukia collapsed to the ground, bleeding heavily. _"Rukia!" _Orihime screamed.

"I can't really do that serious face quite yet." Ichigo smirked toothily. "But I thought you'd be able to appreciate it best."

"Ayame!" The spirit expanded until it covered all three of her friends. Ichigo turned his back to her and began walking away slowly.

"Tsubaki," Orihime whispered. The fighter of the group appeared before the girl. "Koten Zanshun, I-"

A hand gripped one of Orihime's wrists. She froze, eyes wide.

Ichigo was no longer in front of her, walking away.

He was right next to her, holding her wrist.

"Look, Orihime." The girl squeezed her eyes shut. The Arrancar sounded so much like the one she loved. And when she looked at the face he had on... The serious look that Ichigo would wear whenever he swore that he would protect her... Even with the mask, the two were so alike.

"I'm not one who will kill a human girl who isn't attacking me," Ichigo said. "Even _I'm _not that cruel." _He's admitting that he's cruel? _"But if you try to shoot that thing at me, I won't hesitate to kill it and you too. So for your own sake, don't you dare try and wipe me out with that bug."

Orihime's eyes watered. "What happened?"

Ichigo raised his eyebrows. "What happened? Isn't it obvious? Your precious Ichigo was weak. It didn't take much. Just one crack was all I needed to drag him down." Orihime bowed her head and tears dripped down her face. She mumbled something unintelligibley. "What?" Ichigo asked.

The girl looked up with teary eyes. "Ichigo, please stop. Please come back. Please... We need you."

Ichigo laughed. "Like I said, Ichigo's gone. He's not coming back." His grip on Orihime's wrist tightened to the point of pain and she let out a small yelp.

Suddenly, his grip relaxed and just as quickly he was fifty yards away from the girl. His back was to her but he didn't move. "Just to let you know, there's five Soul Reapers scattered around here somewhere. You might wanna hurry. I'm not sure if they're dead yet or not."

And then, he was gone.

* * *

Ichigo leaned against a tree far away from the girl who was undoubtedly healing all the injured.

Ichigo was breathing hard and a drop of sweat ran down his face. _That girl... Orihime._

A blast of pain exploded behind his left eye-right beneath his mask. His hand flew over the area as if it would help the pain. "Stop it!" He growled. He ripped one of his hands through the air as if clawing at it. Four black and read tears that looked like a cougar scratch appeared in the air and expanded until they made a hole, filled with gray nothingness.

Still clutching his face, Ichigo stepped into the portal and arrived in Hueco Mundo.

**So! It's finished! Um... Yeah. Hey, sorry about the very last part(the part under the line) and the really weird phrasing of it all but I couldn't think of how to say what I was thinking. But besides that... Review, fave, follow... Please. :)**


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